Do Political Ideologies Affect How Long You Live?

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People whose political ideas are on the liberal end of the
spectrum may be less likely to die early than those whose ideas
are conservative or moderate, a new study suggests.

However, people's risk of dying early does not always match with
their stated
political party — there was no difference in the risk of
death between Democrats and Republicans during the study period,
the researchers found.

In the study, researchers analyzed information from nearly 33,000
people in the U.S. who completed a survey about their political
beliefs. The researchers also used information from the National
Death Index to determine whether participants died between 1976
and 2008.

People who identified as holding conservative or moderate
ideologies were 6 percent more likely to die during the study
period, compared with people who identified with liberal
ideologies. The findings held after researchers took into account
factors that might affect people's risk of dying over a given
time, including their household income, race, gender and
residential area.

When the researchers looked at people's political parties, they
found that Democrats and Republicans did not differ in terms of
their risk of dying during the study period. However,
independents were less likely to die during the study period than
Democrats. (The researchers did not directly compare independents
with Republicans.) [ Life's
Extremes: Democrat vs. Republican ]

"Our study suggests that political party affiliation and ideology
is related to time to death," said the researchers, from the
University of Nevada's School of Community Health Sciences.
However, people's political party and their political ideology
appear to be different predictors of risk of early death, they
said.

The study's findings disagree with a number of previous studies,
which have tended to find that conservatives and Republicans
report better health than liberals and Democrats. Conservatives
are more likely to report being happy and religious, and both of
these factors have been linked
with better health, the researchers noted in their study. In
fact, the researchers of the new study even hypothesized at the
outset that conservatives and Republicans would be less likely to
die earlier than liberals and Democrats.

The new findings might differ from previous findings because a
person's risk of dying is an objective measure of their health,
whereas a person's perception of their health is more subjective,
the researchers said. For example, "liberals may be more or less
likely to perceive themselves as sick than conservatives, when in
fact their objective measures of health are identical," the
researchers wrote.

In addition, it's possible that people who fall ill might change
their political views on issues such as
universal health care, the researchers said.

Still, the researchers said they cannot rule out the possibility
that other factors not taken into account by the study may affect
what seems like a link between political beliefs and time to
death. In addition, the study assessed the participants'
political party and beliefs at a single point in time, but it is
possible these factors might change over time.

S.V. Subramanian, a professor of population health and geography
at Harvard University, who was not involved in the new study but
who has studied the relationship between political party and
health, said it may be difficult to tease out political ideology
from political party affiliation, and it would have been helpful
for the new study to show how much the two overlap.

In addition, it's unlikely that people's political ideology or
party affiliation affect their risk of death directly,
Subramanian said. Instead, these factors are "more likely to be a
reflection of a particular set of values and beliefs," which, in
turn, could affect health.

Subramanian also noted that the relationship between political
ideology and risk of death in the study is "rather weak."

The researchers said that more studies are required to determine
the potential role of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors in the
link between political ideology and party affiliation and the
risk of early death.

The study is published online today (Jan. 28) in the Journal of
Epidemiology & Community Health.